Molly is a fictitious person who lives at The Old Schoolhouse Magazine. It is a magazine for Homeschoolers that I worked for a brief time last Fall. I learned a crash course on Marketing to discover marketing is not my cup of tea~but the Magazine is really great. Hope you enjoy! Here is Molly's post for today~

Who does not love french fries? This is one of my weaknesses I must admit! I used to buy the frozen kind at the store because I could never get my french fries to taste good.

I must say that now…I NEVER buy frozen. I always make fresh. I ran across some good advice one day while watching the Food Network (yes, I admit. . . I am a FN junkie!) The ultimate secret to great french fries. . . is letting them soak in water after you cut them up. It’s that simple! Bobby Flay says that letting them soak anywhere from an hour to 8 hours is a good recommended time. I let mine soak for two hours. The reason for letting them soak removes the starch from them which causes them to turn brown and stick together. It also makes them gluey..so be sure to soak them well!

The second secret is. . .Kosher salt. It is very inexpensive and makes your french fries taste oh so good! It does have a different taste than regular table salt and sea salt. It does measure the same as table salt so you can use it in many other dishes.

The third secret is peanut oil! It makes all the difference in how your french fries taste. Peanut oil can get pretty expensive, but if you only use it to fry certain things, it will go a long way. I also use it to cook my popcorn in (that is a whole other post in itself).

The fourth and final secret to wonderful french fries is using the right potato. Russett is the BEST way to go simply because of its sturdiness. Do not use Yukon golds or any other soft kind of potato as they will get mushy and not crisp up well.

Now that I have shared my tips with you that I learned, here is my french fry recipe!

Molly’s Famous French Fries

Ingredients:

5 Russett Potatoes (russett make the best french fries)

Kosher Salt

Peanut Oil

Directions:

Cut Potatoes into 1/2″ slices. Then take each slice and cut them into 1/4″ matchsticks. Put all potatoes in a bowl and cover with water and place in the refrigerator for an hour to 8 hours.

Heat peanut oil in a deep pot until it has reached 350 degrees. Take french fries out of the refrigerator and pat them dry with paper towels. Fry them a few at a time until they reach the golden brown consistency you are trying to achieve.

Lay them out on paper towel so that it can soak up all the remaining grease from french fries. Sprinkle them with Kosher salt and enjoy!

(Here is another tip: You can store your oil once it has cooled into a plastic container and reuse it a few more times before you have to replace it.)

Wonder how much money you save when making fresh cut french fries versus frozen? A frozen bag of french fries cost me $2.00 at Aldi’s. I can buy a 10lb bag of potatoes at Aldi’s for $3.00. There are roughly 60 or more potatoes in this bag. I use 5 potatoes per batch of french fries, so my cost per meal is .25 per meal! One bag of potatoes will make 12 servings of french fries. If you were to buy that many in frozen, you would spend $24.00. Doing fresh french fries, you will only spend $3.00!

Hope you enjoy those fries! Now I am off to go put mine in the refrigerator until this evening!